Pat Sabatine and Big Stuff, Martins Creek, Pennsylvania 1977

Curator: Alright, let's dive into this image. Editor: Here we have Larry Fink's black and white photograph, "Pat Sabatine and Big Stuff, Martins Creek, Pennsylvania" from 1977. It's a gelatin silver print, and there's something so raw about it. The casualness of the scene contrasts with the somewhat grainy, high-contrast style. What's your take? What story does it tell you? Curator: Larry Fink has that uncanny ability to take the ordinary and transform it into something simmering with feeling. This shot…it’s pure Americana seen through a slightly off-kilter lens. Look at the blur of movement—it’s like a stolen moment. Is it tenderness, roughhousing, something else? The starkness kind of enhances that, doesn’t it? Almost confronts you with it. What do *you* feel when you look at their expressions—or lack thereof? Editor: I feel... ambivalent. There's a playfulness in the gesture but also a sense of power imbalance that's a little unsettling in today's world. It’s definitely a picture that generates more questions than answers. Curator: Exactly! And that tension, that delicious, slightly uncomfortable feeling, is often where the real art lies. It refuses easy answers. Fink captured a slice of life and left the interpretation wide open. It makes you consider your own context, biases – all those messy human things. Were photographs back then this ‘revealing’ generally? Editor: I think the lack of staged perfection contributes to the sense of honesty that makes the picture feel bold. The background details like the house and the angle the image was captured adds another dimension to the composition of the whole scene. It feels like the picture is more about the environment than the characters featured. I wonder if it adds something new to documentary portraiture? Curator: I think it completely transcends that category – which is the secret, really. Maybe it’s the photographer who should be renamed. We began with “Larry Fink,” and we ended with, whoa… a whole little world contained in silver! What a treat, this ‘accident’ of time.